[aospan]

Hello All,

I bought Smart for two electric (2014) in October 2017. Car battery was died and car was moved to Mercedes West Palm Beach, FL dealer service. Dealer has ordered new battery because car is on warranty till june 2018. Now about four months past but no battery arrived yet.
I have called to Mercedes USA on 01/16/2018 and talked with customer service. They raised priority for my problem but still no updates.
Is it normal ? Is someone faced with similar problem ?
Any suggestions please ?

It's not a problem for me to wait but I want to know how long ...

Thanks !

 

[sokoloff]

Please tell us more. Did you buy the car with the bad battery? Did it go bad on you after you had owned the car for awhile? How did the dealership assess the problem and what did they tell you the problem was? Do you know if this was a lease return and did the dealer confirm that all required services were done while the car was leased? We rarely hear of a battery going bad on these cars and I'm sure lots of us would like to know more.

There typically are no replacement batteries in the US and they have to come from Germany. Shouldn't take four months though. Hope they gave you a loaner.

Thanks.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

 

[JayEV]

Yes the battery for my 2014 also went bad. The new battery was ordered Dec 7th. The part was unavailable with no ETA. Finally got a call from dealership earlier this week battery should be in on Monday. So a little over 2 months. They have another car sitting on the lot also waiting for a battery.

I think all the off lease units that came available last summer just got dumped by MB at auction without anyone servicing them and some had bad batteries and they ran out of spares. Hopefully the backlog is clearing and yours will be arriving soon!

 

[sokoloff]

Wasn't there someone here whose battery went bad and was told that because it was never serviced per the lease agreement that the battery would not be covered by warranty?

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

 

[MB DNA]

I think all the off lease units that came available last summer just got dumped by MB at auction without anyone servicing them and some had bad batteries and they ran out of spares.

Based on my experience - at inspection/turn-in only obvious message center errors are looked for and noted. M-B nor the receiving dealer spend anything on service nor do they "test" the batteries before going to auction where they are sold AS-IS, no warranty.

As with all things smart, YMMV...

 

[JayEV]

Yes that was me. The lease holder never serviced it and when I serviced it they did the 10k & 20k service but when the battery died they denied my claim bc it had no record of 10k service. But I had already been paying BAP and had done the services the month prior so I had to escalate it up to corporate and speak to an executive who authorized the repair. That took a month. Then they ordered the battery on Dec 7th.

 

[SubRosa]

So is the warranty voided if you replace it on your own, maybe refitting an Optima battery?

SubRosa

 

[aospan]

Please tell us more. Did you buy the car with the bad battery? Did it go bad on you after you had owned the car for awhile? How did the dealership assess the problem and what did they tell you the problem was? Do you know if this was a lease return and did the dealer confirm that all required services were done while the car was leased? We rarely hear of a battery going bad on these cars and I'm sure lots of us would like to know more.

There typically are no replacement batteries in the US and they have to come from Germany. Shouldn't take four months though. Hope they gave you a loaner.

Thanks.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

I have ordered fully working car. But car doesn't started when moving driver tried to tow car to me ( from West Pam Beach to Miami Beach). Then car was moved to M-B West Palm Beach dealer service. They confirmed that car is on warranty and battery is dead. Then they ordered new battery ...
Here is carfax details for this car for more info.

 

[sokoloff]

So is the warranty voided if you replace it on your own, maybe refitting an Optima battery?

SubRosa

We aren't talking about the $150 12v battery. We're talking about the $20,000 BIG battery.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

 

[sokoloff]

Okay, it looks like your car was not a lease, but a sale and it also looks like it had all of its service done. That's good news. Hope it all works out for you.

Len
2014 EV Coupe 14,000 miles
2014 EV Cabriolet 4,000 miles

 

[Jo e Lefors]

4 months!
Sounds like 1963 when my Dad was waiting for parts from England for his 1959 Anglia.

 

[aospan]

Finally it's arrived today !

photo - charging near my garage lab

 

[JayEV]

That's great! I got mine back yesterday too and so far it's performing great. Curious how long was your car in the shop for them to install it? I know my shop lied to me I brought it in on 2/13 and it was done on 2/19 but I could tell from the EVAccess app and my GPS module they only only worked on it on 2/16 and it was sitting on the charger since then.

 

[aospan]

Curious how long was your car in the shop for them to install it?

I can't tell you exact time because I don't know when new battery arrived, sorry ;(
But overall time in service is about 5 months.